Volume 1 Issue 9, September 2023

Stem cell therapies are being explored for the treatment of various diseases, and stem cell-derived exosomes may provide similar clinical benefits without the biosafety concerns. However, large-scale manufacturing and analysis of the complex cargos of exosomes will need to be addressed to enable their clinical translation.

Healthcare hackathons can bring patient-users, problem-solvers and external stakeholders together to formulate individual patient-user problems and find innovative solutions. Lessons can be learned from open innovation research to organize hackathons that ultimately lead to the design of new patient-specific products.

Radiotheranostics combines disease-specific molecular imaging and radionuclide therapy. We present new and promising targets, tracers and isotopes for radiotheranostics and outline the road to clinical translation of the ¹⁷⁷Lu–LNC1004 radiopharmaceutical, which has recently been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a phase I clinical trial.

An article in Nature Metabolism reports the development of an electrogenetic interface to programme gene expression in cells.

An article in Nature Communications reports a metamaterial-based textile that can be worn as clothing to enable direct implant-to-implant wireless networking at the scale of the human body.

The advent of portable, low-field MRI is transforming clinical brain imaging. This Review discusses the bioengineering advances that have enabled scanning outside the controlled environment of conventional MRI suites, enhancing access to neuroimaging. Ongoing development and innovation will increase the real-world application of MRI.

Skin-interfaced wireless biosensors offer great opportunities for inexpensive, burdenless and continuous health monitoring of perinatal and paediatric patients in clinical and home settings. This Review highlights the latest technology developments and deployment activity in this rapidly expanding field.

Chemiluminescence imaging can be applied for the in vivo and in vitro assessment of biological activity. This Review discusses the design, mode of action and application of chemiluminescent probes for the detection of the activity and presence of enzymes and analytes in cancerous tissue.

The role of the gut microbiome in human health and disease is being increasingly recognized. This Review discusses microbiome engineering strategies to treat the dysbiosis of the gut microbiota, which has been linked to the pathogenesis of multiple human diseases.